Media Arts and My Goal

Its hard to say what I had in mind when I suddenly decided to take the media arts course. Maybe its possible that I wasn't really thinking and just decided that the course sounded like fun and I would take it. What probably did go on in my mind was that I liked art and especially flawless art like the graphics of movies and video games. Media Arts is like combining the art which I so much appreciate and the media which makes it flawless like in movies. Knowing this, I probably took the course because I wanted to create that kind of art. Therefore, my goals for this course would probably be to learn digital art and editing, to learn something that may serve to help me in the future designing game graphics or adding special effects to movies whether it is professional or just a home made video.

The Subtext of the Media

The media often use sly techniques to get a consumer to bend to their will. Despite the fact that sometimes it is a mutual benefit, a good amount of the time it is completely unnecessary and just a scam. Some of the things that the media do may be very interesting, unique, and awe inspiring. However some other ones are just despicable. Those just make you, the viewers, angry and insulted even. A while since the women's rights movement, there has been less commercials which may depict the female gender as needy or even stereotypically bad. Instead they, the commercial cartographers moved on to make men the stereotypically needy and, in general, bad. Not that anyone should be put into a needy and bad category, but if they need to do so in order to send the commercial message around, they should do it evenly. The only difference that they made was now that women are not mistreated on commercials, they just got left out on some key parts.

Yes, this may appear to some as a very keen perspective. Actually, all this idea derived from thinking in depth after a very well prepared presentation by a inspiring media developer. It is interesting that some of the most cutest most inocent commercials have subtext that may in turn make them despicable to their audience. Now when I view commercials I often take a moment to think about the subtext of what its trying to say and take a further look at it. However, most of the time I still will ignore it. :)

Another Beginning!

Well, I have moved on from grade 11 media arts to the grade 12 counterpart called interdiciplinary studies. Our first task in this class was to find out what type of learner we are and which part of the multiple intelligences catergory do we fit in. Well, after doing a abundance of questions to reach an accurate result, I realized with the help of these programs that I am average in about all of these. However, some of the factors pionted out to the kind of learner I really am. For example, my most prominent learning skill is mathematical and logical, my visual spacial is pretty strong too. This made me feel good because I really like the aspects of learning and maybe that is why I am this type of learner. Although I have to say I am a bit disappionted because I also wanted to be a musical rythmitical learner too. I am although satisfied that it is my third strongest learning method despite its close proximity with the other learning habits.

Short Film Project for Media Arts

Lately, in our media arts class, we have started an assignment where our objective is to create a short film anywhere from 3-7 minutes long. The goal was to make it effective yet silent, quite a challenging task. Due to the many technological inconveniences, out group as well as many other groups experienced a slow down in progress. However, it seems that we have pulled through and will be finishing by the deadline.
At the beginning of the project, my contribution was not huge seeing I was neither the camera man nor any of the two leading actors. However, I tried to join as many background scenes as I can. It is ironic that it just so happens that the scenes which I participated in were retook at another time and I unfortunately was not in it. Later, our main actor needed to do a trick stunt which involves flicking a pen around his finger which is a common act but hard to accomplish. There I put my skills to test being the only person who did that I quickly received the role of the stunt man but to be honest there weren’t many stunts.
From watching the camera man I learned how to maneuver the camera and I asked questions when in doubt. During the finalizing of our project, I became more useful and had more roles. I helped to edit the film but everyone participated in that one. Also, I was a contributor to the workbooks but everyone had to do their part for that too. The major part I did was that I was the main designer of the poster; however, another individual did help me innovate it a bit and add the ever so important script at the bottom to make it look professional.
In the process of evaluating my group, I will keep my associates unnamed. My group worked well overall and accordingly. The camera man was mainly done by one person but several other people helped with it a lot. Although everyone was not needed in the film, the rest either watched to see if the can play side rolls, helped with the camera positioning or worked on their blogs. The joy of editing was shared with everyone. The group worked on the workbook in an orderly manner and the parts were divided equally among members based on what they already did.
I have high hopes for this project seeing as everyone worked really hard and we truly feel that we did a great job. As they say, an honest hour of work for an honest buck.

REEL CANADA

Well, in the past week or two I have finally been to the REEL CANADA and had an overall wonderful experience. It was very blatant that it was really well organized. The staff handed out tickets at the beginning to everyone. In the morning I was to watch the movie 'Siblings' and in the afternoon I was to watch the movie 'Bon Cop Bad Cop.'
The movies were really interesting in various ways but what I really enjoyed was the afternoon movie. It was really amusing as opposed to the suspenseful morning movie. Also I guess I am not really the morning movie person. Before the initiation of the actual movies, we went through a few minor films done by various individuals whom had a set base budget. Although the films were not top notch, they were generally entertaining, especially the interesting ideas of those individuals. I am sure they could have done a spectacular job with more funds. The first movie I saw was in the morning and it was 'Siblings.' Keep in mind that I saw it in the MORNING meaning that it does not have the same appeal to me. Overall it was a great movie, lots of suspense and mystery. The acting was pretty good too, or at least I thought so. However, despite the effectiveness of the script in telling this dramatic story in such a dramatic way, it was kind over decorated with the "Vibrant language" which in my opinion was really useless.
In the afternoon after our lunch break, yes, they let us out to have lunch in between, I saw 'Bon Cop Bad Cop which I have to say was really good and it contained a good portion of humor to keep me entertained.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? Part (II)

O Brother, Where Art Thou? Part (I)

This is a wonderful movie that parallels the story of Odysseus. However, the twist that was added was that the heroes are actually 3 criminals who escaped from prison.


My favorite part of the film is near the end. When Everett and his mates were about to be hanged for their crimes despite their pardon from the Governor, Everett goes upon one knee to pray sincerely to God although with an improvised speech. The hysterical result, a flood wave coming from a breaking damn, saves them and brings the ring which Everett was searching to him. The reason I liked this part so much was how ironic it was and how it was really unexpected.



The main characters of this movie was George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, and Charles Durning.
George Clooney who was acting as Everett was a very interesting character. He put up a well display of a proud man as well as clever and cunning. He is also a director as well as a producer and screen writer. He participates in a wide variety of movies and I think that aside from comedy which he does very well, he is also great at serious characters.
Tim Blake Nelson acted as Delmar in this movie. Delmar is a really dorky character and he did a fabulous job of portraying such a character. He is also a director as well as an actor. He has done quite a bit of movies from the 1992 to 2000. His career is just starting but it seems to be in a broad range. He does a really good impersonation of not so bright characters like he did also in Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.
John Turturro was the one who acted as Pete in 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' His acting was superb. He did an excellent job playing the role of Pete, an honest man who isn't the smartest person one would meet. This character was interesting because he sounded smart but his tone and behavior all pointed to the opposite. John Turturro does a lot of acting in all sorts of different films as well as television shows.
John Goodman was the parallel to the Cyclops in Odysseus. He wore an eye patch and was called Big Dan. In the story he tricked Everett and Delmor and robbed them. The acting of a mean brute was really realistic. He acted in a variety of movies in a lot of view points such as some of the jolliest people in children films.
Holly Hunter was Everett's wife in 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?'She acted as the demanding person which is the cause of all Everett's troubles. She acts as well as produces movies. Her acting is very interesting seeing as how she completely changes into the character that she is portraying.
Charles Durning was the Governor by the name of Pappy" O'Daniel in this movie. I think his acting was wonderful especially the random outbursts of anger he showed to his supporters. He did many other acts aside from this one in many other movies and in movies coming up such as 'A Bunch of Amateurs' His acts in a wide range of films.

At the beginning of the movie, the lifeless golden green colours give the nice effect of the southern plantations. It showed really well what the slaves are trying to escape from, the hard work and the heat. When our heroes near the cities or are supposed to be around more populated areas, the scenery changed to a more vibrant colour such as deeper more luscious greens which symbolizes more water and sort of a paradise.



This movie uses a lot of things similar to parodies but not always so. For example they made similarities between Odysseus such as the Sirens. They also used the Cyclops from Odysseus too. How our criminal heroes of the story followed a road was really a an example of Dorothy following the yellow brick road from the 'Wizard of Oz.' The part where Pete was believed to be turned into a toad resembled slightly with the fairy tale of the frog prince. The Blind Prophet relates to many characters in many stories as the wise one. He could be compared to the sorting hat in 'Harry potter,' and the good witch in 'Wizard of Oz.'

It is unfortunate to say that i have not watched any other Coen Brothers Movies, however I plan to watch 'Gates of Eden' for a start and then some more. I really enjoyed the music from the movie. It was a really good fit because it suited all the scenes. The songs were the ones which one would sing together with other people around a campfire. It was probably chosen to bring up the image of a journey, a trek, that will take many days.

REEL CANADA - my prior thoughts

Our school is planning on having a trip to the Reel Canada film festival. To be fair, I didn't have high hopes for it until about a week ago when i actually gained knowledge on some of the films. Now, I can hardly wait and that is why this post is created. A few of the movies which I definitely want to see there includes Bon cop Bad cop, Fido, The Red Violin, and siblings. Just so you know, I think I can only watch two at the festival, but that will not be stopping me from watching all of the movies listed above.

My March Break (III)

During the march break' I went skiing. It was a fun experience to ski in the bottom section of the mountain, and as I recall on my ski strip, I remember a clear sky and a beautiful mountain scenery. However, I probably shouldn't have went skiing in the first place since it made me appear a little bit masochistic in front of my friends and family. To be completely honest, I was ready to pack up and leave after my first few miserable attempts at skiing. But I didn't, so instead i tried snowboarding, which made me frustrated and gave me several bruises.
Despite all these discouraging things, I decided to stay and it really did pay off. I actually ended up having a good time at the end. Although i was one of the most terrible skiers on the trip, i was one of the apex snowball fighters. It was also a good thing that there were power outlets, which meant more games. The funny thing was that all my friends had the same train of thought and when they were packing, they brought their laptops too!

My March Break (II)

Nearing the end of march break, I went to LAN-party at a friends house. As you can probably guess, all we did was play games, watch sitcoms or movies, and ate pizza.
We also played some console games on the Wii such as super smash bros brawl and Guitar Hero. For some odd reason, when your ordering pizza with friends, it's fun too. Overall we agreed that the pizza I chose was the greatest.The sitcom which we all watched together which gave us a laugh was "Two and a Half Men." We watched some really old classic movies such as "Rambo" and "Master and Commander" as well as some recent ones including "The Sword of the Stranger." But what depleted most of our time was the endless hours which we spent gaming on Counter Strike, DotA, Mabinogi, Left 4 Dead, and other games. If was such a fun time and we accomplished so many meaningless but fun things that I had to use my brain to remember them all.

My March Break (I)

Although I know that the march break is over and this is a bit late for a post about it, I still strongly feel that I should elaborate upon my march break. During this march break, I have done many things, some of which I shouldn't brag about such as finishing 14 anime series, finishing 3 single player campaign games, and watch about 2 movies including "watchmen" and "knowing."

AGO: Art Gallery of Ontario

A few days ago, to be precise it is on the 17th, I had a trip to the Art Gallery of Ontario, AGO. It was absolutely fascinating. The tour guides who took us on a tour of the building also taught us about its architecture. The architectural design was to appear as a tourist attraction or resort that one would normally associate with Europe. The back is designed like an upside down canoe and has a great view. Further more, the spiral stairs are just a wonderful work of art that is incorporated into stairs. The spiral effect is really something to look at. The AGO may bring in many tourists to Toronto and it may serve to better define Toronto's multicultural system. Personally, I think that the AGO is also a great place for learning all kinds of arts since you can sketch the 3D sculptures there and also view some of the various paintings.

Spirited Away: A movie that changed my perspective

Spirited Away - Sen to Chihiro Kamikakushi
IMDb top 61
IMDb animation top 3
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Writer: Hayao Miyazaki
Screenplay: Hayao Miyazaki
Adaptation to English: Cindy Davis Hewitt and Donald H. Hewitt

An overall awesome movie which greatly changed my view on entertainment as a whole.
The story begins off with a ten year old girl named Chihiro who is moving into the suburbs to their new house. Along the way Chihiro and her parents come across a shirne as her father decides to take a short cut, and the family decides to explore the other side against Chihiro's will.

Upon entering the shrine, Chihiro's parents finds food and digs in, and despite Chihiro's constant reminder for them to stop, they say they will pay for it later. Chihiro tries to go back to the car and meets a boy named Haku who tells her to run away from the place. When she gets back to her parents she discovers that they had turned into pigs. Scared beyond wits, she runs in a desperate atempt to flee the place. Haku finds her and saves her once again and tells her that the only way to survive is to get a job, which Chihiro does.

Meeting many spirits and going past many difficulties, Chihiro attempts to save her parents and escape with the help of her newly made friends. Haku was saved by her as well and helps her pass the test to get home. The movie ends with Chihiro's clueless parents moving to their new home.


This movie greatly changed me as a
person. The hard to believe fantasy and the events which had irony to them. The movie made me crave for more stories, fairy tales, mythology, or folk tales.After the day which I had watched this movie, I seeked many new stories to be heard from history to fantasy, from gods to vampires.
If you want to view a clip instead of watch the movie CLICK HERE

Beginning

This is a blog that can be about anything in particular but I haven't decided what it is going to be focused on at the moment.